Pronunciation: dah-tang-long
Meaning: Datang dragon
Author/s: Mo et al. (2014)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Guangxi, China
Discovery Chart Position: #874
Datanglong guangxiensis
Not to be confused with Datonglong, an ornithopod dinosaur of uncertain affinities from China's Shanxi Province, Datanglong is a tetanuran dinosaur... of uncertain affinities from China's Shanxi Province. Although they shared the same area and their names look just a typo apart, the two sat on opposite ends of the food chain: one was placid, herbivorous and likely chewed ferns, while the other likely chewed Datonglong.
Although initially identified as a basal member of Carcharodontosauria ("shark-toothed lizards"), Datanglong's scant remains, which don't include teeth, shark-like or otherwise, have told some palaeontologists a different story, after deeper digging. Cau (2014) and then Samathi and colleagues (2017) opined that Datanlong doesn't show any carcharodontosaurian features that aren't also present in megaraptorans. Furthermore, the latter researchers found Megaraptora to belong within Tyrannosauroidea (closer to Tyrannosaurus) rather than Allosauroidea (closer to Allosaurus), where it had traditionally been placed. Cau dug further still in 2024 and recovered Datanglong as a likely member of Spinosauridae (closer to Spinosaurus). Sadly, he didn't officially release the specifics of how or why he came to that conclusion. In 2025, Kellermann, Cuesta and Rauhut consistently recovered Datanglong as an indeterminate carcharodontosaurid in all their analyses.
In terms of size, Datanglong was large for a non-tyrannosaurid tyrannosauroid, small for a carcharodontosaurian, and even smaller for a spinosaurid. But at roughly nine metres in length, it would've put the fear of any chosen god into the herbivores of Early Cretaceous China.
Although initially identified as a basal member of Carcharodontosauria ("shark-toothed lizards"), Datanglong's scant remains, which don't include teeth, shark-like or otherwise, have told some palaeontologists a different story, after deeper digging. Cau (2014) and then Samathi and colleagues (2017) opined that Datanlong doesn't show any carcharodontosaurian features that aren't also present in megaraptorans. Furthermore, the latter researchers found Megaraptora to belong within Tyrannosauroidea (closer to Tyrannosaurus) rather than Allosauroidea (closer to Allosaurus), where it had traditionally been placed. Cau dug further still in 2024 and recovered Datanglong as a likely member of Spinosauridae (closer to Spinosaurus). Sadly, he didn't officially release the specifics of how or why he came to that conclusion. In 2025, Kellermann, Cuesta and Rauhut consistently recovered Datanglong as an indeterminate carcharodontosaurid in all their analyses.
In terms of size, Datanglong was large for a non-tyrannosaurid tyrannosauroid, small for a carcharodontosaurian, and even smaller for a spinosaurid. But at roughly nine metres in length, it would've put the fear of any chosen god into the herbivores of Early Cretaceous China.
(Datang dragon from Guangxi)Etymology
Datanglong is derived from "Datang" (for Datang Town and the Datang basin) and the Chinese "long" (dragon). The species epithet, guangxiensis, means "from Guangxi" in Latin.
Discovery
The remains of Datanglong were discovered in the Xinlong Formation (Datang basin) at Nazao Village, 21km southwest of Datang Town, Nanning City, Guangxi Province, China, by members of the Geological Survey Research Institute of Guangxi in 2011.
The holotype (GMG 00001) is a partial skeleton including vertebrae from the back (1), hip (set of five) and tail (2), one chevron, the partial ilia, ischium and pubis (hip bones) from the left side and a partial ilia from the right side. Although initially identified as a member of Carcharodontosauria, Datanglong has been recovered as a megaraptoran and a spinosaurid in several independant analyses since.
Preparators
Huang Chaolin and Xie Shaowen of the Natural History Museum of Guangxi.
